Gar fishing comes with a warning: The snouts of these prehistoric-looking fish are lined — inside and on the edges — with hypodermic needle-like teeth. So care must be exercised at all times to keep space between human body parts and gar mouths.
When he’s keeping fish for food — yes, longnose gar is good, with backstrap fillets that are white and flaky — Beason “sedates” the fish with a baseball bat to the brain.
Even then, he uses loping shears to remove the snouts before using pliers to free the rope from the teeth.
“Even a slight brush of those teeth can inflict serious damage,” Mark Beason said. “Extreme care must be used at all times.”
That pertains to handling the fish when it comes to the side of the boat.
“Sometimes they jump, which is why I call them redneck tarpon,” Beason said. “So when you have them near the boat, try to keep its head pointed to the side or away because they jump the direction their head is pointed.”
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